This invention relates to immunologic diagnosis of malignancy.
Classical methods of screening for cancer have included x-rays, biopsy and physical examination, as well as immunologic methods such as detection of immune complexes formed by antibodies to cancer cells.
Cells of allotransplantable ascites sublines of the strain A mouse TA3 mammary carcinoma cell line express large quantities of epiglycanin on their surface. Mouse epiglycanin consists of a single polypeptide chain of about 1,300 amino acid residues, to which more than 500 carbohydrate chains are attached; carbohydrate represents about 75-80% of the glycoprotein, which has an M.sub.r 500,000. Codington et al., 73 J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 1029 (1984) induced anti-epiglycanin polyclonal antibodies by injecting these sublines into rabbit and mouse, and reported the presence in body fluids from human patients, particularly those having metastatic cancer, of glycoprotein that binds to anti-epiglycanin polyclonal antibody.